In modern laundry settings, both commercial and domestic, it is increasingly desired to employ a plurality of cleansing aids. These can include soaps and detergents as primary surfactants, and bleaches, whiteners, stain removers and the like to achieve especially good wash performance. Although in some cases it is possible to add these materials sequentially so as to optomize their efficiency, more commonly in a domestic setting they are added at once. This can in some cases lead to antagonistic interactions. In particular, when an enzymatic stain remover is present, its effectiveness can be severely limited if a strong oxidizer which can destroy the enzymes is added. Similarly, a strong oxidizer can attack other wash aids such as fluorescent brighteners or fragrances, if present in the wash mixture.
Peracids, whether added as such or formed in situ from activated peroxygen mixtures, are examples of such oxidizers. Thus, with activated peroxygen bleach systems, it is generally necessary to use these wash aids before or after the peroxygen bleach. This can be an added complication which is not desirable.
Peroxygen bleach systems have been widely used in commercial laundries and are now becoming increasingly common in domestic laundry settings. Peroxygen materials, to be effective, must undergo reaction in the wash liquid to generate an active oxygen species which effects the desired bleaching action by oxidation. Peroxygen bleaches for domestic use include a peroxygen source, most commonly a perborate or the like, and an activator or precursor to promote or catalyze the generation of the active oxygen species. Representative prior patents and literature references to peroxygen bleach and/or the addition of quaternary ammonium materials to laundry preparations include
U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,934 of Chung et al; PA0 Great Britain patent 1,557,568 of Procter & Gamble; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,029 of Jones; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,903 of MacGilp et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,757 of Bright et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,562 of Lutz et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,210 of Kiezanoski; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,493 of Diamond et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,265,624 of Inamorato; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,300 of Grey; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,352 of Broze et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,244 of Broze et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,015 of Paucot et al; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,165 of Brocklehurst et al; and PA0 Journal of Chemical Education, Vol 55, No. 7, July 1978, page 429-433.
Representative disclosures of a percompound together with an activator and an enzyme include U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,339 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,466, both of Gray. An additional reference to Grey is U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,794, issued Sept. 4, 1979. The patent discloses and claims a liquid bleach/softener composition consisting essentially of a water soluble peroxy bleaching agent (of which at least 50% is hydrogen peroxide) and a water-soluble fabric softener compound (at least 50% cationic amino softener), and the balance, water, or a mixture of water and alcohol.
The reference states that bleaching agents useful in the composition include hydrogen perioxide and alkaline metal perborates, which can be activated. Also, the fabric softening compounds include aliphatic quaternary ammonium compounds, preferably hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide.
In contrast with the invention contemplated in the present application, this reference does not appear to teach surface active activators to produce surface active peracids.
Also of interest is EP 140 648 (published May 8, 1985). It discloses hydrogen peroxide compositions which are contented to contain an emulsion with one part by weight emulsifier per part by weight of activator (enol ester). This reference relies on specific enol ester activators and requires at least an equal weight amount of emulsifier.
It is a general object of this invention to provide a peroxygen bleaching composition which can be added to a laundry mixture together with oxygen-sensitive wash aides and not destroy the effectiveness of such wash aids.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a combination product which includes a peroxygen bleach and an oxygen-sensitive wash aid.